Ashes 2021-22: Travis Head credits Pat Cummins for giving him the freedom to play his way

The Ashes 2021-22 has finally come to an end, and Australia won it by a comfortable margin of 4-0. Although Travis Head was the last man picked for the Gabba Test, five matches later, he went on to win the player of the series award.

Head scored the most number of runs in the series (357) as well. The fact that he emerged as the best player of the five-match Test series despite the presence of several world-class cricketers makes his performances even more memorable. However, the 28-year-old thanked his skipper Pat Cummins for giving him the confidence to go out and play with freedom.

It is to be noted that this was the first assignment of the Aussie pacer as Australia’s captain. Yet, Head credited him for allowing him to play his natural game. The batter also drew light on the confidence Cummins gave him.

Pat’s giving me the confidence to go out and play: Travis Head

“Pat’s giving me the confidence to go out and play. He alluded to that game at Optus Stadium [against India in 2018]. He said look, if you take the game on and you get caught at third man a couple of times and you’re playing the right way it’s no skin off his nose and he backs me in 100%. And that probably gave me the confidence going into the series to be myself and play the situation as I see it,” said Travis Head, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

The middle-order batter, however, stressed the fact that he hasn’t been allowed to play recklessly. He then spoke about a phase in his life where he wasn’t too happy with the way he was getting dismissed. Further, the southpaw also spoke about his dismissal in the MCG Test.

“I went through a period of time where I understand that dismissals might not look the best and I might get caught at third man or flap at a bowler and obviously I don’t want to do that. My default as a batter, technically, is if I nicked the ball, I throw my hands through it, because it hasn’t hit my bat and it’s a mistake and I try to sort of catch the moment as such and it doesn’t look pretty.

“In Melbourne, I was disappointed with my shot, as I nicked it I exaggerated it and make it look a little bit worse, but I try and work extremely hard on that,” he added.